top priorities are islamist militant groups in africa, weapons concerns in iran and north korea, and china's military modernization. >>> they are called unmanned drones, but these weapons of war still have a human at the controls. the pentagon wants to make sure that it stays that way. cnn pentagon correspondent chris lawrence reports on the battle to stop real-live terminators from taking to the skies. >> reporter: behind every missile, there's an actual human being, someone back at base remotely pulling the trigger. but the pentagon is preparing for the day when robots are capable of killing on their own. >> the machines, they're starting to take over. >> reporter: it conjures up images of "the terminator." >> if we uplink now, sky net will be in control of your military. >> you'll be in control of sky net, right? >> reporter: the pentagon just issued its first directive on autonomous weapons, forbidding the development of lethal weapons with no human control to minimize failures that could lead to unintended engagements. >> that's a sterile term meaning harming innocent, killing the wrong